Private Members Motion On Funding Greyhound Racing Industry Comes Before Dáil This Week

Tuesday, 24 November 2020 09:22

It's brought by the Social Democrats who are looking to end state funding of the sector.

It comes after a documentary last year looking at the treatment of the dogs, with thousands believed to be culled every year.

In the wake of the programmer the Irish Greyhound Board introduced a number of measures to improve the health and safety of the dogs involved while Barry's Tea withdrew their sponsorship of an annual greyhound race at Curraheen Park following concern about the mistreatment of dogs.

A number of peaceful protests were staged at Curraheen Park by Greyhound Awareness Cork calling for an outright ban on greyhound racing in Ireland.

Social Democrats TD Holly Cairns says state supports given to the industry could be used elsewhere:

"The industry kills almost 6,000 dogs annually for not racing fast enough and our government funds this, like you said, not just every year but in the middle of pandemic they've upped the funding by 2.4 million so now, this year in 2021 sorry, the industry will receive €19.2 million, and this industry is loss making."